VCE GENERAL ADVICE

The Victorian Student Register (VSR) contains identity information for each Victorian student. Currently there are more than 1 789 095 students’ details on this central database.

The VCAA relies upon the many school data entry officers who take the time to enter their students’ data correctly.

This accuracy is critical to the operation of the register when students move between schools and on to subsequent education providers.

Inaccurate data entry causes the VSR student identification and matching process to fail, resulting in an ‘exception’. Exceptions for government school students delay their access to the Ultranet.

Unfortunately, we have identified over 20 000 ‘exceptions’ in Term 1 this year. Most of these were generated by providers. Our VSN operations team will now work to resolve them.

We therefore urge your data entry officer to ensure that they follow the correct procedures for enrolling students onto the Student Management System (SMS) – for example, CASES21, SAS2000, Synergetic – and adhere to standard data quality rules.

It is essential that data entry officers fully understand the parameters when enrolling students onto the SMS.

The VCAA wishes to significantly decrease the number of ‘avoidable’ exceptions in future. We ask data entry officers to help us achieve this by ensuring that students are flagged correctly on student management systems when they are first enrolled.

Some examples student management systems are listed in the following sections.

CASES21 & SAS2000

If your school uses CASES21 or SAS2000, there are three options to use for the VSN field.

Enter the actual VSN, if known

N for ‘New’

U for ‘Unknown’

Only students new to Victoria (from interstate, overseas or prep) should be flagged as ‘New’. Every other student must have their VSN entered, or be flagged as ‘Unknown’ and the VSR will match the student based on name and date of birth. Some exceptions will still be raised owing to data entry errors such as spelling differences and changes to dates of birth.

‘Unknown’ means the student does already have a VSN but it is not known at this stage (it has not been passed on to you by the previous school). The VSR will match the student to the VSN based on their first name, surname and date of birth. If any of these details are different, the enrolment transaction will be sent to exception.

Only those students new to the Victorian system, such as interstate, overseas or prep students, should be flagged as ‘New’.

Synergetic

If your school uses Synergetic, there are two options to use for the VSN field.

New

Unknown

Only students new to Victoria (from interstate, overseas or prep) should be flagged as ‘New’. Every other student must be flagged as ‘unknown’ and the system will match the student based on name and date of birth. Some exceptions will still be raised owing to data entry errors such as spelling differences and changes to dates of birth.

‘Unknown’ means the student does already have a VSN but it isn’t known at this stage (it has not been passed on to you by the previous school). The VSR will match the student to the VSR based on their first name, middle name, surname and date of birth. If any of these details are different, the enrolment transaction will be sent to exception.

Only those students new to the Victorian system, such as interstate, overseas or prep students, should be flagged as ‘New’.

TASS

The TASS system is set to default to ‘enrolled before – yes’. The drop-down menu must be used to change the enrolment status to ‘no’ for preps and those students new to Victorian schooling, i.e. students transferring from interstate or overseas.

‘Enrolled before – No’

Only those students who are ‘new’ to Victoria, such as overseas students, interstate students and preps, and starting school for the first time in this state should be flagged as ‘enrolled before – No’ and the VSN field should be left blank.

‘Enrolled before – Yes’

Every other student who has been at a Victorian school must be flagged as ‘enrolled before – YES’ and the VSN entered, if it is known. If the previous school hasn’t passed the VSN onto your school, the VSN field can be left blank and the VSR will automatically match the student with their VSN, (provided the personal details match what the previous school entered).

If your school is using other student management systems, such as Maze, Delta-Link or SchoolPRO, please contact your software representative and ask them for a manual or guide to the correct enrolling procedures.

The VSN Operations team are working to ensure that exceptions are cleared as quickly as possible. If you have any questions regarding exceptions, please contact the VSN Operations Team:

Page 87
Under Media (ME03), the weighting for GA 1 (Units 3 and 4 Coursework) has been changed from 20 to 18 and the weighting for GA 2 (School-assessed Task) has been changed from 35 to 37.

Page 103

Under ‘Visual Communication and Design Examination’, ‘circle and ellipse templates’ has been added to the list of approved material.

Page 168
The Summary Schedule of Fees and Charges has been updated to reflect the increase in the 2012 rates that took effect on Monday 12 March.

Important Administrative Dates 2012

Page 3
The final day for students to lodge, with a late fee, applications for Statements of Marks for 2011 examinations was amended from Friday 2 March to Friday 9 March.

Under Monday 5 March, the statement ‘All forms relating to a service for which a fee applies republished stating the new approved 2012 fees and charges’ has been added.

Under Monday 12 March, the statement ‘2012 fees and charges increase to new approved rates from this date’ has been added.

Page 4
Under Wednesday 20 June, the following statement has been removed: ‘SIAR 1 scores for VCE Studio Arts School-assessed Task 1. After this date VASS will not allow SIAR 1 results to be entered.’

Page 5
Under Monday 16 July, the statement ‘SIAR 1 School-assessed Tasks that are required for review available through VASS’ has been removed.

Under Monday 23 July, the statement ‘Review of School-assessed Task by visitation in Studio Arts begins’ has been removed.

The statement in bold under Monday 30 July has been revised. It now reads ‘SIAR 2 scores for VCE Unit 3 School-assessed Coursework and VCE Studio Arts School-assessed Task 1.’

The reference to Studio Arts SAT 1 grades in the statement in bold under Monday 6 August has been removed. It now reads ‘June examination results available to schools through VASS’.

Page 6
Under Friday 21 September, the following statement has been added to the dot points headed ‘Final day for students to lodge requests’: ‘for certified copies of 2011 results and full replacement sets (statement of results/GAT statement) for 2011 results’.

Page 7
Under Monday 22 October, the statement ‘SIAR 3 School-assessed Tasks that are required for review available through VASS’ has been removed.

Under Monday 29 October, the statement ‘Review by visitation of School-assessed Tasks begins’ has been removed.

Under Friday 2 November, the statement ‘Final day for principals to lodge score amendments for VCE School-assessed Tasks from SIAR 1’ has been removed.

Page 138
The following paragraph has been added immediately before the final paragraph under Section 11.5.2: ‘Evidence from school-based personnel must be supported by external independent professional evidence.’

Note: These changes also apply to the 2012 VCAA Calendar for Secondary Schoolsand VCE and VCAL Providers. Providers are reminded that the online version of Important Administrative Dates 2012 remains the definitive and most current source of information about important administrative dates.

VASS Administrators and VCE and VCAL Coordinators are reminded that VCAA fees and charges increased effective Monday 12 March 2012, as advised in Notice to Schools 21/2012.

Summary Schedule of Fees and Charges

The new approved fees and charges differ from those previously published in the Summary Schedule of Fees and Charges on page 168 of the VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2012.

The Summary Schedule of Fees and Charges in the online version of the handbook has been updated. If they have not done so already, VCE and VCAL coordinators are asked to:

take note of the new 2012 Summary Schedule of Fees and Charges and inform all relevant staff of the changes

insert at page 168 of each print copy of the VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2012 a copy of the revised Summary Schedule of Fees and Charges. (The revised summary can be found on page 168 of the online version of the handbook.)

Forms

All VCAA forms relating to a service for which a fee applies have been republished stating the new approved fees and charges.

Any form relating to a service for which a fee applies that is submitted to the VCAA must now be accompanied by the new approved 2012 fee for that service.

If they have not done so already, VASS administrators and VCE and VCAL coordinators are asked to:

print and disseminate the updated VASS-based forms to relevant staff, campuses and external organisations delivering to students enrolled at their school

destroy all copies of 2012 forms that include superseded fees and charges.

The following forms have been republished with the new updated 2012 fees and charges:

Application for Statement of Marks & Inspection of Examination Scripts

Providers are reminded that because SATs will now be statistically moderated, a number of minor changes have been made to administrative practices relating to the seven studies for which a SAT forms part of the graded assessment, as advised in Notice to Schools 7/2012:

Scores for Studio Arts SAT 1 are now due as part of the SIAR 2 reporting cycle on Monday 30 July.

Studio Arts SAT 1 will not be reported in August but will be part of the end of year reporting process.

For studies that have SATs as part of their assessment VASS will now record school assessment scores against each criterion.

Please refer to the errata above for details of the alterations that have been made to Important Administrative Dates 2012 associated with these changes.

The VCAA would like to offer HPE educators and other HPE education stakeholders the opportunity to contribute to the development of Victoria’s response to the Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education paper, which can be accessed from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) website: www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/hpe.html. The document will provide the direction for the development of the HPE Australian Curriculum and the forums hosted by the VCAA will provide an opportunity for you to have your say about the draft HPE paper.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) educators, ICT subject association representatives and other education stakeholders are invited to contribute to the development of Victoria’s response to the Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies for primary and secondary curriculum (F–12).

You can have your say about the digital technologies content of this paper by participating in one of two programs – a face-to-face consultation forum or one of two online forums delivered via Collaborate.

The face-to-face forum will be held on Monday 23 April 2012 from 4.30 pm – 7.00 pm at Melbourne High School in South Yarra. Video-conferencing facilities will also be available − details are provided on the registration form. Registrations are essential, and can be made online: www.vitta.org.au/events/event/ict-in-the-australian-curriculum-2

There will be two online forums:

the secondary years online forum (Collaborate) will be held on Monday 21 May from 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm

the primary years online forum (Collaborate) will be held on Thursday 24 May from 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm.

As advised in the VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL and VET December 2011, from 2012 onwards new and revised VCE study designs will only be published electronically on the VCAA website, on the individual study pages.

The revised study designs for VCE Systems Engineering and Visual Communication Design are available online in the year prior to their implementation from the VCE future study designs page: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/futuresd.aspx. Schools are advised that these online publications are being made available to assist teachers with preparation for the implementation of revised studies in 2013 and should not be used in 2012.

Updates and amendments to study designs will still be published in the VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL and VET and on individual study pages.

SAC reports are written following the Unit 3 and Unit 4 audit in the first year of implementation of a study design. The reports are based on findings from the coursework audit and VCAA statistical data and cover themes, topics, key knowledge and skills, outcomes and assessment relevant to the revised studies.

A number of revised studies will be examined for the first
time in 2012. Examinations specifications and sample examination materials for the following revised VCE and VCE VET studies are available from the VCAA website:

Accounting Examination 1 and 2

Australian Politics

English Language

Global Politics

Industry and Enterprise

Media

Outdoor and Environmental Studies

Product Design and Technology

Sociology

VET Integrated Technologies

VET Laboratory Skills

VET Music (Technical Production).

Teachers and students should be aware of any changes to the examination format or content as outlined in the examination specification. Sample examination questions or sample examinations have also been provided as appropriate.

All of the 2011 written examinations are now available online. Assessment Reports for 2011 are being progressively uploaded to the VCAA’s website.

In 2012 the VCAA will introduce online marking of the VCE English examination.

There will be no change to the format of the examination question book and students will continue to provide written responses using pen and paper; however students will use a single answer book rather than three script books.

Revised examination instructions and a sample answer book will be published on the VCAA website during Term 2. Schools will be notified when this material is available.

Online marking presents a significant opportunity for English teachers who haven’t been able to attend the VCAA’s Assessment Centre in Coburg to participate in marking VCE English examinations.

While assessor briefing and training will still be conducted in Melbourne, assessors are able to view student responses and enter scores from their home computer, via a secure website.

Applications to assess the VCE English examination can be lodged at www.ssms.vic.edu.au. The closing date for applications is 30 April 2012.

Further details about the requirements for assessing will be provided to applicants.

Other examinations marked online are the GAT, Agricultural and Horticultural Studies, Chemistry, English as a Second Language, Environmental Science, History: Revolutions, Outdoor and Environmental Studies, Physics and Psychology examinations.

This information is for teachers who have applied to assess the 2012 June VCE written examinations and for principals and daily organisers of their home school.

Only those people who have applied and subsequently been appointed by the VCAA to be assessors or emergencies can attend these training meetings. Assessors will be notified of the training venues on confirmation of appointment.

Applicants should be aware that the GAT, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology are all marked online. Accounting and Biology assessors will still be given student scripts, but will use on-screen marking sheets this year.

The dates of training meetings for assessors appointed to mark June examinations are outlined as follows:

Sunday 17 June – Accounting, Biology, Environmental Science

Saturday 23 June – Chemistry, Physics

Sunday 24 June – Psychology

Saturday 16 June to Monday 18 June – GAT (assessors choose one of these days).

Assessors for the 2012 Languages oral examinations are required to attend a compulsory full-day training meeting as a prerequisite for assessing. Only those who receive notification of their appointment as an assessor or an emergency assessor prior to the dates below are eligible to attend training meetings.

Suitably qualified people who would like to become Language assessors in 2012 are invited to apply online at www.ssms.vic.edu.au.

Saturday 6 October – Indonesian Second Language, Italian, Japanese Second Language, Vietnamese, Spanish, German, Greek, Japanese First Language, Korean First Language, Chinese Second Language, Chinese Second Language Advanced.

The VCAA provides principals in schools with information about the appointment of staff from their schools, the dates of assessor training meetings and the availability of casual relief teacher (CRT) payments to secure the release of staff. In requesting that the school agree to the release, the principal can acknowledge the professional development benefits as well as the commitment required to do the work in very tight timelines.

If an offer of appointment is made by the VCAA, school-based staff undertaking these VCAA activities in school hours are advised to ensure that their release has been approved and confirmed with their school. Teachers should be aware that the VCAA may need to contact their school for administrative or audit purposes.

Where release is required from school duties to attend training meetings, a CRT payment is made available to the home school (as given by the assessor in their application registered on the online application website SSMS) to gain the release of the teacher from their duties and to cover the absence.

Where release is not required from school duties a payment for attendance at the training meeting is made available to the assessor.

Each VCE Language study design specifies a word range for Section 3 of the written examination. This word range is a guide to the appropriate length of response for the suggested time. When student responses to this section are assessed, the whole response will be considered against the criteria.

Teachers of VCE Physics should note that the numbering of questions in Section A of these examinations will change in 2012. Questions will continue to be grouped according to the information to which they relate, but they will now be presented in multiple parts, for example, Question 1a, Question 1b, Question 1c. This numbering style will be consistent with other science examinations. While the total number of questions given on the examination cover will be reduced, the overall length of the paper will remain the same. For further information please refer to the cover of the examination, which will be published on the VCAA website at the beginning of Term 2.

The VCAA participates with other curriculum and assessment authorities across Australia in the delivery and assessment of many languages through the Collaborative Curriculum and Assessment Framework for Languages (CCAFL) Project. This enables the provision of language courses at Year 11 and Year 12 that may otherwise not be possible because of small candidature. The CCAFL National Reference Group has made a series of minor alterations to the CCAFL study designs, effective 2013. These alterations mostly relate to the end-of-year written examination but also relate to text types and kinds of writing. The following table summarises the planned changes.

Current specifications 2012

Commencing 2013

The written examination is three hours including reading time.

The written examination is two hours and 30 minutes plus 10 minutes of reading time.

Prescribed text types as listed in the Text Type section of VCE Study Designs for Languages.

Text types for receptive use no longer prescribed.

Prescribed text types for productive use in the external examination are: article, blog, diary/journal entry, email, letter (formal or informal), text of an interview, message, note, report, review, script of a play, script of a speech or talk, and story.

Written Examination Section 1 (Listening and Responding) has five to seven texts.

Part A has three to four texts, responding in English, weighting of 20%

Part B has one short text followed by one longer text, responding in the language, weighting of 10%

Written Examination Section 1 (Listening and Responding) has six texts.

Part A has three texts (including at least one shorter and one longer text), responding in English, weighting of 15%

Part B has three texts (including at least one shorter and one longer text), responding in the language, weighting of 15%

The total listening time is 16 minutes for two readings of each text.

Written Examination Section 2 (Reading and Responding)

Part B: Students are required to read a short text of approximately 150 words and write a response of 150 to 200 words.

Part B: The student will be required to produce a text type drawn from those in the Text Type section of the VCE Study Designs.

Part A: responding in English, weighting of 20%.

Part B: responding in the language, weighting of 10%

Written Examination Section 2 (Reading and Responding)

Part B: Students are required to read a short text of approximately 150 words. The student will be expected to write a response of approximately 150 words.

Part B: The student will be required to produce a text type drawn from those prescribed for productive use. If two related texts are used, they must be presented as one text with two parts in the examination.

Part A: responding in English, weighting of 10%

Part B: responding in the language, weighting of 15%

Written Examination Section 3 (Writing)

Students are expected to produce a response of 200
to 250 words.

Students are given opportunities to produce different kinds of writing (e.g. informative, imaginative, persuasive)

Weighting of 15%

Written Examination Section 3 (Writing)

Students are expected to produce a response of approximately 250 words.

Students are provided with the opportunity to produce different types of writing such as informative, imaginative, persuasive, personal, evaluative, reflective, narrative or descriptive either individually or in combination.